Western European Cinderella
by maxlovely
Summary: Liechtenstein feels something for his big brother, but does he feel the same way? OCC inluded, first time for this please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The lovely weather couldn't cheer her up, what with the sunshine pouring down her hair, making the blonde hair appear glowing. She sat in the carriage with her carer while thinking about her future life. She was devastated, she had no money (broke in fact), she had no food and she is going to starve to death. She wouldn't want to know what her next family would be like. She's currently on her way to see her long distance cousin's cousin: her sixth cousin fifth time removed or something resembles that. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out the way that she or her carer had hoped.

"I'm sorry I couldn't take her", said her cousin, apologetically, "but I only work here, I have no choice of whether she can stay or not."

While the carer was persuading the cousin, Liechtenstein (also known as Lili) suddenly had a thought: if she ran away, and nobody could catch her she could escape all together from this. Once she had the thought, she ran as fast as she could away from the giant house. She didn't know where she's going and it looks like it's going to rain.

She realised that she's tired, and the rain is now pouring down. Her perfect blonde, plaited hair was ruined, as the plaited hair becomes detached from her hair bands. She slid down the wet break wall in a closed valley, waiting for her death. She couldn't think, she couldn't talk only worrying about her survival.

All of a sudden, a short young man's outline appeared in the rain. He looked concerned, Lili couldn't figure out whether it was a dream or reality. She was losing her conscious.

She went with him, having trusted him at first sight with his genuinely anxiety look in his eyes. Later, he took care of the documents needed for adoption from the carer. He looked after her. She didn't know why, having no relations to him at all. She learnt that his name is Basch Zwingli (Switzerland). They lived comfortably for a while, sharing the household works. Lili slowly gained health from this. She liked him, thinking him as a family man.

It wasn't until later she knew that he didn't have anything to eat. "I've already eaten" was the excuse he used on her when he rescued her, and she believed him. She wondered again, why he rescued her. Clearly, he didn't have anything to gain from this. When she asked him, he looked….embarrassed.

"Well…saving a life is saint like you know…no matter what your situation, a mission for the country you know…." He began blabbering. Lili was amused, what did he have to hide out of all things? She looked at him, with those big green eyes of hers, right into his eye that resembles hers.

"no…", he calmed down whilst Lili observed his handsome strong features, "I couldn't not care any longer, I mean it's the best we have now, at least that's what I think."

"Thank you, "Lili replied, "That's what I think too."

Lili was surprised, she didn't realised he helped for the sake of helping her. She began to smile, as Basch returned to his normal pose on the bench.


	2. Chapter 2

Staying in a huge mansion is not always easy, as Lili discovered. She is not related to Basch in anyway. Although Basch insisted that she is now family, she still tries to help out as much as possible. Basch took her in purely because of generosity, but he had not considered his current situation. He was in debt, in nearly as much poverty as Lili did. It was no wonder that the house was in a mess, desperately needed cleaning, and needed someone to look after.

She started to tidy up. And soon, the house was in a better state, not at all shy of its former glorious self. Basch noticed, and surprised at her house-work skills at such a young age. Basch treated her as a young sister, still a child, even though there was only 5 years between them.

Ocassionally, other people visited the mansion. Mostly due to business, as Basch had a weapon-export reputation, which was built up from a long time ago. But one non-business visitor was Roderich Edelstein, a great friend of Basch. He had violet eyes and wavy brown hair. He could be considered as handsome, Lili often thought, if he smiled a little. He had the scholar type about him, and his glasses certainly didn't help him on that matter.

Roderich managed to survive due to Basch teaching him how to fight, how to defend himself from other stronger people. This didn't help him much, as Basch often dragged him from fights which he had lost. "I'm not going to do this again!" was Basch's speech after every bail, but he went back to help Roderich every time.

Lili also got on with Roderich. He had great taste in music and art. Also looking scholar-like, he puts his hobbies before work. Lili also discovered from visiting Roderich's house, that he keeps his house very tidily. Despite general clothing (underwear) lying around, which he seems to have some obsessions with.

Relaxing days were over when both Basch and Roderich returned to their respective work and only came back for holidays. At first Lili was lonely, but she sneaked into Basch's room, and looked through his photo-albums. She knew that her feelings towards him were not sibling-like, unlike her feelings towards Roderich. She was hoping as she demonstrates her house-working skills that Basch was going to treat her differently. She longs for a loving family, that's her only wish.

Whilst on business, Basch was teased by his scholarly friend. Roderich, due to his artist personality, he noticed the way Lili had been looking at Basch. Basch had said it was "soulful", he thinks otherwise. But of course he is not going to tell his long-time friend that. Those kinds of things are best to be noticed by himself. After all, what would be fun in letting his friend in having it easy?


	3. Chapter 3

Nothing.

It was the fifth time Lili has checked the mailbox, and it's not even noon yet. Nothing has changed since she checked ten minutes ago. Same thing as a day before, and the day before that. Lili has been checking He's probably too busy with his work, Lili thought, not because he's forgotten.

Lili has written to him countless times, telling him about her daily life, conveniently forgotten to mention how she thinks about him all the time. The house is now clean and bright, not a hint of its former self remains. She hired a gardener so that the garden was full of flowers. Purple lavenders and red roses, not just green grass.

Christmas approached rapily, and Basch was due to return of his work. It's Christmas afterall. He had to be here. Maybe with his friend Roderich, to whom she gets on very well with.

...

Where did all these people come from? Basch thought to himself as he forced a smile to a very familiar looking guy. The guy was chatting with Roderich. Perhaps was his imagination, but he may have polished his glasses a little more than usual, and his wavy brown hair straightened.

"Evening my dear Basch, how are you doing?" Roderich smirked at him.

"What...where...how...?" Basch stuttered, not caring for his image in front of the stranger.

"Well, this is Ludwig, he is my new advisor. We..." Roderich began to gesture towards the handsome blond guy before Basch interrupted him.

"No! I mean nice to meet you." He nodded towards Ludwig. "I mean this..." he gestured towards his hall, which had been decorated grandly. "Did Lili do all this?"

"Well yeah, you don't think it was Greg right?" Roderich's smirk came back onto his face.

"And who's Greg...?"

"Your new Gardener! Do you know anything about this house? Have you even contacted Lili these months?"

That got Basch thinking. He'd received a couple of letters from Lili, they're still on his shelf in fact. Everytime he was in some kind of meeting, there was the import, the export, the gathering with his high school friends...ok, maybe not all of them were important, but Lili wasn't on his mind at all.

He feels very guilty. Little Lili had been looking after the house so well, she's part of the reason that he didn't have to worry about home at all. Now his business is slowly building up, he should give Lili treats. He's the only family she has now, and he should care for her.

"Hey, Basch. Welcome home." A soft voice sounded behind him, and Basch turned around. A girl with large eyes smiled at him. She was wearing a pink short-sleeved dress with a dark red bow. Her lips curled up more as Basch's eye size grew.

"...Lili? Why, how..." Something stirred inside his chest, "What do you think you're wearing? That is totally inappropriate!"

Lili stared at Basch incredulously. The dress was of the latest fashion, in her favourite colour of pink. She had spent hours getting ready for this moment, and, and this is how he reacts to this?! She stared back at Basch, biting her lips to prevent the tears from falling down.

"Go..." Before Basch has finished his sentence, Roderich butted in.

"My dearest Lili, you look lovely tonight." He stared into her eyes, which filled with tears, "Would you like to do the honour of coming out on a date with me? Preferably now?"

A DATE? Basch thought to himself, no, he won't allow it. But the soft voice spoke before he had time to reject Roderich.

"Of course Mr Roderich, I would love to." Lili smiled towards Roderich. Roderich took her hands and walked towards the main gate, before adding to Basch: "Don't wait up dearest Basch, she'll be safe in my hands."

Then without a backward glance, Lili walked off with his best friend, leaving him to face a whole house of guests. It's going to be a long night.


End file.
